Under pressure from Democrats, Senator John Walsh of Montana, who has served in office for just six months, said on Thursday that he was dropping his election bid, clearing the path for his party to nominate a new candidate.
Walsh, who was appointed by Montana Gov. Steve Bullock (D) to his office in February after Senator Max Baucus was named ambassador to China, will keep his seat through the end of this year. Montana Democrats have until Aug. 21 — when statewide candidates are certified on the ballot —to replace him.
His withdrawal from the race comes about two weeks after The New York Times reported that in 2007 Walsh had plagiarized large sections of the final paper he completed to earn his master’s degree at the prestigious Army War College in Carlisle, Pa.
Monday is the deadline for Montana candidates to withdraw from the general election.

Democrats in Washington and Montana had concluded that Walsh had virtually no chance to win against the Republican nominee, Rep. Steve Daines. He was mum for much of this week, canceling public events and discussing his decision with his family.
After initially denying his plagiarism when confronted with evidence outside his office last month, Walsh suggested after The Times published the article that stress from his tour of combat in Iraq had played a part in his appropriating the work of others.
Last week, however, he said that the effects of his military service had not played a part, and indicated that he took “full responsibility” for his behavior.
Still, the reaction in his home state was swift and negative. Two Montana newspapers published editorials on Sunday urging him to stop campaigning.

Less than two months after his stunning primary upset and just hours after stepping down as House majority leader, Rep. Eric Cantor said Thursday that he will resign his seat in the House of Representatives effective Aug. 18.
“I want to make sure that the constituents in the 7th District will have a voice in what will be a very consequential lame-duck session,” Cantor said in an exclusive interview with the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Cantor said he has asked Gov. Terry McAuliffe to call a special election for his district that coincides with the general election on Nov. 4.
By having a special election in November, the winner would take office immediately, rather than in January with the next Congress.
“That way he will also have seniority, and that will help the interests of my constituents (because) he can be there in that consequential lame-duck session,” Cantor said.

Dave Brat, an economics professor from Henrico County, toppled the incumbent in a Republican primary on June 10.
Cantor on Thursday reiterated his support of Brat’s election bid.
“I hope he will win,” he said.

McAuliffe said Wednesday that he was “heartsick” over Cantor’s defeat, because coupled with the retirements of Rep. Frank R. Wolf, R-10th, and Rep. Jim Moran, D-8th, it represents a significant loss of clout for the state’s congressional delegation.

Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, said Cantor deserves credit for making a “generous gesture” to his district and eventual successor by resigning early.
“At the same time, it’s highly probable that he has a very lucrative deal in the works for his post-Congress life, and he’s eager to get started,” Sabato said.
“The Republicans are nearly guaranteed to retain control of the House of Representatives after November, and a former majority leader with good ties to most of his colleagues is a very valuable commodity,” he said.

OnTheIssues has added coverage for several new gubernatorial candidates based on who won their primaries, or who answered our VoteMatch quiz.
The new candidates will have their issue stances filled out over the next couple of weeks.

June 10: Dave Brat (R,VA-7): Won Republican primary: “I plan to cross this entire district and knock on thousands of additional doors and spread this message. That’s how we won the primary and that’s how we’re going to win the election in November.”

June 11: Eric Cantor (R,VA-7): Announced his resignation as Majority Leader effective July 31: "[I] suffered a personal setback last night, [but] I couldn’t be more optimistic about the future of this country.”

June 19: Kevin McCarthy (R,CA-23) Elected Majority Leader. Asked to respond to grassroots Republicans who felt Cantor’s defeat by a Tea Party insurgent should have resulted in a more conservative majority leader, McCarthy said: “They elected a guy who is a grandson of a cattle-rancher, the son of a firefighter; they elected a guy who has only grown-up with the grassroots.”

June 19: Raul Labrador (R,ID-1): Lost bid for Majority Leader, as Tea Party candidate: "If you vote for the status quo, you will prove that we are still not listening," Labrador told his colleagues.

June 19: Steve Scalise (R,LA-1). Won election as Majority Whip, as the Tea Party candidate: “This is a win for America because were going to be a more united team moving forward.”

June 19: Peter Roskam (R,IL-6): Lost bid for Majority Whip, as the moderate candidate: Asked whether he would run again for the position in November, Roskam demurred: “Today is Steve Scalise day, so let's celebrate Steve Scalise."

June 23: Speaker John Boehner (R,OH-8): His leadership position is unaffected by the shakeup: "After Cantor’s primary loss and the subsequent change of his top deputies, Boehner has assured colleagues that he will remain in place to provide the conference with stability."

OnTheIssues has added some new candidates for 2014 Senate and gubernatorial races;
the primaries are now underway, too, so we note the candidates who have lost their primaries.
OnTheIssues serves as a political archive, so we keep information on candidates even after they drop out --
ready for the next race or for referencing.

Click on the new candidates above to see their issue stances (and others'); and check back in the coming weeks to see additional coverage.
We will now focus on adding depth to each candidate issue page (the current average is 67% coverage for challengers; i.e., 2/3rds of all VoteMatch questions are answered for each candidate).

New York Rep. Michael Grimm was indicted Monday on 20 counts of fraud and other charges relating to a Manhattan restaurant he owned and operated, accused by federal prosecutors of evading the IRS and making over $1 million in revenue "disappear."
The Republican congressman, who is a former FBI agent, pleaded not guilty at his arraignment in Brooklyn. After he was arrested earlier in the day, Grimm will be released on $400,000 bond. He was ordered to stay within the continental U.S., and surrender his passport by May 11.

The congressman has vowed to fight. After learning that charges were forthcoming, Grimm's attorney William McGinley said Friday that the "government has pursued a politically driven vendetta against Congressman Grimm and not an independent search for the truth."
The statement said Grimm "asserts his innocence of any wrongdoing" and "will be vindicated." McGinley said Grimm will "continue to serve his constituents."

The indictment covered mail and wire fraud charges and charges pertaining to false federal tax returns. At the heart of the indictment was an alleged "scheme" to hide sales and wages at his Upper East Side restaurant, Healthalicious, which he ran from 2007 to 2010 before entering Congress.
Prosecutors described a relatively simple scheme, where Grimm allegedly took cash from the register of his restaurant and used part of that to pay workers off the books. In doing so, he allegedly under-reported his revenue, "making over a million dollars simply disappear."

Grimm was also accused of hiring undocumented workers.
The charges did not appear to focus on the financing of Grimm's 2010 congressional campaign, which was initially thought to be the focus of a long-running FBI investigation.

Gov. Bobby Jindal, Louisiana's Republican Party state chairman Roger Villere and others asked McAllister to step down early after the married congressman was caught on video kissing a member of his staff. McAllister said that he plans to serve out the rest of his term, which ends in December.
The congressman's decision not to run for relection is likely to spur a lot of interest in his position representing the 5th district in Louisiana.

OnTheIssues has added some late entries for the 2014 Senate and gubernatorial races.
February 2014 is considered a "late entry" for the November 2014 election (the first Senate primary takes place in Texas in March!).

Click on the new candidates above to see their issue stances (and others'); and check back in the coming weeks to see additional coverage.
We will now focus on adding depth to each candidate issue page (the current average is 50% coverage for challengers; i.e., half of all VoteMatch questions are answered for each candidate);
and on adding third-party candidates (who typically enter the race later than major-party candidates, since they usually have no primary).

Walsh was already running for the seat, but he'll now run as the incumbent senator.
That change could provide some inherent advantages in his quest to hold one of the party's most vulnerable seats.
"I wanted to appoint someone who I truly believed would wake up each and every day wanting to put Montana and Montanans first," Bullock said in a news conference to announce the appointment.

New Jersey Congressman Rob Andrews has announced he's resigning from his congressional post after holding the seat for more than two decades.
The 56-year-old will join a Philadelphia law firm.
"It appeared that this was an opportunity that was here now and that would not be here in the coming months," he said.
Andrews plans to vacate his post on Feb. 18, but his staff will stay on board until a successor is chosen.
N.J. Gov. Chris Christie will need to schedule a special election to fill Andrews' seat. No word yet on when that may be.
The New Jersey 1st Congressional District is a strongly Democratic seat that is expected to stay blue in the upcoming election.

The congressman's resignation comes as he is being investigated for potential ethics violations related to the use of campaign funding for travel.
A watchdog group called for an investigation into his use of $11,000 for a trip to California. His daughter, an aspiring performer, was in Los Angeles at the same time for a music recording session.
Andrews also reimbursed his campaign $13,000 after coming under scrutiny for taking his family to a wedding on the campaign's dime. His campaign then donated the money to charity.
The congressman has said multiple times that all of the spending was legal and fully disclosed.
His resignation would shut down the investigation since he would no longer be a member of Congress and would be out of the purview of the U.S. House Ethics Committee.

Most governors (but not all) are required to make an annual speech to their state legislature on the "State of the State",
analogous to the presidential requirement of an annual "State of the Union" speech.
These speeches typically take place early in the year; below are excerpts from those which have taken place in January.
More will follow in February, with a few in March.

President Obama delivered the State of the Union address, telling numerous tales of ObamaCare, and assigning Joe Biden a new task.
The mainstream media focused on how Obama promised, on several issues, to bypass Congress and implement new policy by Executive Order.

The Republican response was marked by numerous separate responses this year:

Rep. Trey Radel (R-Fla.) will resign from Congress on Monday, according to multiple sources.
Radel, 37, was caught buying cocaine last year from an undercover federal agent in Washington and spent nearly a month in a rehabilitation facility. He returned to Congress after the winter recess.
Before this incident, Radel looked like he had a bright career. He gained prominence by playful banter on Twitter. He called himself the hip hop Congressman.

It’s up to Florida Republican Gov. Rick Scott to schedule a special election for Radel’s seat. His southwest Florida district is solidly Republican — Mitt Romney won the district with 61 percent of the vote.
The race for Radel’s seat had begun even before he decided to resign. Republican Paige Kreegel, a former state representative, has already launched a campaign for the 19th district. Kreegel, who finished third to Radel in a 2012 primary, has drawn the support of a super PAC, which has raised $1 million with the intention of helping him win the seat.

Lizbeth Benacquisto, a Republican leader in the Florida Senate in Tallahassee, is widely expected to run for the seat. Former Rep. Connie Mack (R-Fla.), who held the seat before Radel, has also mulled a run.
Former Congressman Connie Mack has talked to others about potentially running for the Fort Myers-based seat he used to hold, and former candidate Chauncey Goss hasn't ruled out a bid, either. Both Goss and Kreegel, a former state representative, ran against Radel and lost in 2012.

The race’s lone Democratic candidate, April Freeman, issued a written statement skirting whether Radel’s less-than-reputable departure would lead to positive opinions for a Democrat in the seat, but it touched on Freeman being an “independent voice” to replace the Republican’s “hurtful, harmful and extreme” political policies.
“They did not support Southwest Florida business, protect seniors or improve government. More of the same will not help our community,” she wrote.

Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn will retire at the end of 2014, triggering a special election for his deep-red Senate seat in November
That means the Republican primary to replace Coburn could be a free-for-all.

Three of Oklahoma’s five U.S. House members are seen as potential candidates:
Reps. Tom Cole,
James Lankford,
and Jim Bridenstine.
Insiders in the state expect Lankford to jump into the race; Cole, too, has long been seen as someone who could run for, and is interested in, seeking higher office.
Bridenstine, should he decide to run, would likely be the choice of outside conservative and tea party groups.

Also on the shortlist are several state-level officials: Attorney General Scott Pruitt, Lt. Gov. Todd Lamb and Corporation Commissioner Patrice Douglas. And T.W. Shannon, the African-American speaker of the state House, will certainly be on Oklahoma insiders’ minds for the seat.

Gov. Mary Fallin announced Friday morning that the special election to fill Coburn’s seat will be held on Oklahoma’s regular election days this year: a primary on June 24, runoff election on Aug. 26 if necessary, and the general election on Nov. 4.
The filing deadline is April 11.

Kirk Humphreys, the former mayor of Oklahoma City who ran and lost against Coburn in the 2004 GOP primary, said the race to fill Coburn’s seat could be “like a cattle call.”
At the same time, he said, one factor could keep the field smaller: because the special election will be held at the same time as the state’s regularly scheduled elections, anyone whose current position is up for reelection this year will have to consider whether to give up his or her seat in order to run for Senate.
That applies to almost all of the potential candidates being mentioned: Cole, Lankford and Bridenstine all have House elections in November, and Pruitt, Lamb and Douglas all are up for reelection statewide this fall as well.

A spate of House retirement announcements this week highlights that January is a traditional time to announce retirement.
"Retirement" means the House incumbent will not seek re-election in November 2014, and will leave office in January 2015.
The January timing allows challengers to file for candidacy in time for early primaries (some as early as spring 2014).
The list so far for the entire 113th Congress appears below -- we'll add next week's list as announcements are made; next week will be another "retirement week"!

OnTheIssues begins its coverage of gubernatorial races.
The list below include races where the two opposing candidates have announced early enough that we can cover them early
(some will likely drop out, and we will likely add some others later).
Click on the state names for debate coverage, or on the incumbent and challenger names for candidate coverage.
Check back in coming weeks as we fill in the coverage of each of the races below.

The news that Sen. Max Baucus may resign his seat to become U.S. ambassador to China could throw a new wrinkle into the 2014 race for his Senate seat, as Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock would appoint Baucus’ successor.
Would Bullock appoint his own lieutenant governor, John Walsh, who’s already a top Democratic candidate for the seat that Baucus planned to vacate anyway, through retirement?

Already, Lt. Gov. John Walsh (D) is running for the open seat against Rep. Steve Daines (R), the freshman congressman whom Republicans believe is in the strongest position to win the race.
It could very well shake up the 2014 landscape where Republicans need to pick up a net of six seats to recapture the Senate majority.

While Democrats might cite the power of incumbency, incumbent appointees are very different from incumbents who were elected. Sitting senators rarely lose reelection; during the post-war period, senators have been reelected about 85% of the time when they chose to run for another term. But of the 52 senators appointed to fill Senate seats only 42% have been reelected. So appointing Walsh to the Senate seat is hardly the game changer you might think.

If confirmed, Baucus would succeed Ambassador Gary Locke, that he was stepping down to return to his family in Seattle.

OnTheIssues retains archives of retired House or Representative members and previous Senate candidates,
because many of them run for office again.
The list below comprise numerous candidates who are running for office again
after they had previously "retired" (or lost their electoral race).

OnTheIssues has completed the candidate list for the 2014 Senate races.
January 2014 is considered a "late entry" for the November 2014 election (primaries take place in the spring and summer).
Perhaps there will be a few more late entries, but our Senate candidate list is more-or-less complete for all 35 races.
Below are our new candidate issue pages first posted in November and December (plus one newly-elected House member and two newly-elected Mayors):

Click on the new candidates above to see their issue stances (and others'); and check back in the coming weeks to see additional coverage.
We will now focus on adding depth to each candidate issue page (the current average is 50% coverage for challengers; i.e., half of all VoteMatch questions are answered for each candidate);
and on adding third-party candidates (who typically enter the race later than major-party candidates, since they usually have no primary).

Tea Party targets: Several Tea Party organizations have targeted incumbent Republican House members who voted to end the federal government shutdown, to allow ObamaCare, or both. Generally there are no candidates yet, just targets.

Anti-Tea Party targets: Establishment Republican Party and business organizations are funding candidates to beat Tea Party incumbents or Tea Party challengers.

Red State hot race watch: RedState.com watches races of interest to Republican takeovers or losses to Democrats; these are its top seven "races to watch".

Democrat Cory Booker, the charismatic mayor of Newark, defeated conservative Republican Steve Lonegan, a former small-town mayor, according to tallies published online by The New York Times, Politico and the Star-Ledger newspaper.

Booker becomes the first black U.S. senator from New Jersey. In Washington, Booker will join Republican Tim Scott of South Carolina as the nation's only two black senators.
He will fill the U.S. Senate seat held by Democrat Frank Lautenberg, who died in June at age 89.

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a Republican seeking re-election and a possible White House contender in 2016, chose October 16 as the special election date.
Democrats said he could have scheduled the special election for November 5, the day of the general election, and accused him of self-interest and wasteful spending.
They said he was avoiding being on the same ballot as Booker, who could attract Democratic and minority turnout and cut into Christie's chances of winning re-election by a large margin.
Christie, who said politics did not play a role in the decision, said he wanted to let New Jersey voters have a permanent voice in the Senate as soon as possible.

Clark wins Massachusetts Democratic primary in special House election, district MA-5

State Senator Katherine M. Clark bested six Democratic rivals Tuesday,
winning her party’s nomination in the race to succeed Edward J. Markey in the US House of Representatives and setting her on course to likely become the state’s newest member of Congress.
Clark, a Melrose lawyer captured 31.6 percent of the vote.
Middlesex County Sheriff Peter J. Koutoujian and state Representative Carl M. Sciortino trailed with 22 percent and 16.1 percent, respectively.
As the Democratic nominee in a liberal district north and west of Boston
— one that voted by more than 30 percentage points for President Barack Obama over Mitt Romney last November
— Clark is now the strong favorite going into the December general election. She will face Frank J. Addivinola Jr., the Republican nominee, who won the Republican primary Tuesday night.
Should Clark, 50, win on Dec. 10, she would become only the fifth woman in history to represent Massachusetts in the US House.

OnTheIssues uses the off-season (when there are few immediate elections pending)
to establish issue pages for candidates in upcoming elections (mostly 2014).
Below are our new candidate issue pages first posted in September:

While OnTheIssues does not serve as a news source (we consider ourselves an "archive" instead), we do cover presidential contenders' views on current events,
since they often serve as the basis for campaign debates. We sample below some of the 2016 contenders' views on Syria, focusing on how they apply to Mideast policy in general:

Ambassador John Bolton announced this week his candidacy for the 2016 Republican nomination for President.
Bolton announced early and unambiguously because he is not as well-known as many other possible contenders.
His credentials include:

U.S. ambassador to the United Nations from August 2005 until December 2006

Assistant secretary for International Organization Affairs at the Department of State (1989–93)

Assistant Attorney General, Department of Justice (1985–89)

Assistant administrator for program and policy coordination, USAID (1982–1983)

Senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (a conservative think-tank)

Fox News Channel commentator

Op-ed contributor to the Wall Street Journal and the National Review

Author of several books focusing on foreign policy

Despite those strong credentials, the mainstream media have focused primarily on just one thing: Bolton's mustache.
(Ok, a few places reported that he is pro-gay-marriage, too, because of the shock value).
We at OnTheIssues hereby pledge to never report on the color nor style nor any other aspect of Bolton's mustache, nor whether he plans to keep it for the duration of the campaign.
Instead, we have initiated a webpage covering Bolton's issue stances (including gay marriage), and we commit to building it incrementally over the coming months.
Here are how some of the mainstream media covered Bolton's announcement:

Mayor Bob Filner reached a proposed settlement agreement with his legal adversaries Wednesday that likely sets the stage for the end of his brief, scandal-plagued tenure as San Diego’s 35th mayor.
The tentative agreement centers around a lawsuit filed against the mayor and the city by a former Filner aide who accused him of sexual harassment and unwanted sexual advances.
The City Council will consider the proposal at 1 p.m. Friday in closed session.

In exchange for Filner's resignation, the city will reportedly pay "some, if not all" of Filner's share of damages awarded in the lawsuit.
At least 18 women have come forward to accuse the mayor, a Democrat and former member of Congress, of inappropriate behavior such as groping and unwanted kissing. He has apologized for his behavior and recently went through two weeks of therapy.

Filner, 70, served in Congress for 10 terms until he became the first Democrat elected to lead San Diego in 20 years.

Source: Craig Gustafson and Mark Walker in San Diego Union-Tribune (Aug. 21) and Catalina Camia in USA Today (Aug. 22)
Click for full voting record of Bob Filner's issue positions.

A victory, after an abbreviated and contentious contest with some of the state’s best-known Democrats, would make Mr. Booker a heavy favorite to win the October general election in an overwhelmingly Democratic state that has not sent a Republican to the Senate in four decades. That would make him the country’s only elected black senator.

Source: Raymond Hernandez in New York Times
Click for full voting record of Cory Booker's
and Steve Lonegan's issue positions.

2014 Gubernatorial Race coverage: Aug. 12, 2013

17 competitive Governor's races so far, for 2014

There are only two gubernatorial elections in 2013, but 36 elections in 2014.
Of the 36 elections next year, 17 have serious challengers so far.
Those 17, plus the 2 races for 2013, are listed below, with links to OnTheIssues coverage of each candidate we have covered so far.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee plans to target 17 House Republicans with a grass-roots push over the August recess, according to an internal party email obtained by CQ Roll Call.
“In the majority of these districts we have field staffers on the ground, coordinated through the respective state parties, to define and hold accountable vulnerable Republican incumbents, through earned media tactics, messaging amplification, and community outreach,” wrote Ryan Daniels, the deputy national press secretary and African-American media adviser. The DCCC’s list includes some of this cycle’s most-often mentioned vulnerable Republicans, but there are some lesser-known targets as well.

On the other side of the aisle, the Cook Political Report
listed 8 Democratic races as "toss-up's", meaning that those incumbents are particularly vulnerable to a Republican challenge.
Only one Republican incumbent, Gary Miller (R, CA-31) was listed as equally vulnerable on the GOP side. Some of the DCCC-targeted Republicans are only "Lean Republican" districts, according to Cook's report, which means they are possibly vulnerable; and most are "Likely Republican" districts or "Solid Republican" districts.

Democrats face a tough task this cycle in their quest for the majority. They must pick up 17 seats to take the speaker’s gavel, but the number of competitive races this cycle is much smaller than in previous years. Still, the committee plans to target dozens of Republicans throughout the fall and this cycle.

To summarize the combination of the two reports above: The Democrats would have to win all 17 of their targeted races against incumbent Republicans,
while simultaneously holding all 8 vulnerable seats, in order to win a majority of the House of Representatives.

OnTheIssues this month begins our coverage of the 2014 Senate races.
While it might seem "early" to regular voters,
the 2014 Senate races are well under way, and there are plenty of races to cover.
We list below the newly-covered entrants -- at least those who look like they will survive until the primary voting -- and ask our readers to check back over the next few weeks as we fill in their issue stances.